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Louisiana Oil Spill 2010 PHOTOS: Gulf Of Mexico Disaster Unfolds
- Thread starter Watchman
- Start date
Powerful Gulf Stream Current + BP Oil Spill = HELLO EUROPE !!!
Without doubt at this point we are in the midst of what could be the greatest ecological catastrophe in history. The oil platform explosion took place almost within the current loop where the Gulf Stream originates. This has huge ecological and climatological consequences.
The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe. Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy.
No wonder the Europeans are frantic with distraughts !!!
Without doubt at this point we are in the midst of what could be the greatest ecological catastrophe in history. The oil platform explosion took place almost within the current loop where the Gulf Stream originates. This has huge ecological and climatological consequences.
The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe. Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy.
No wonder the Europeans are frantic with distraughts !!!
According to scientists, the spill is about 40,000 barrels a day
contrary to BP's claim of 19,000 barrels.
Spill will continue till when they can or if they can stop it.
contrary to BP's claim of 19,000 barrels.
Spill will continue till when they can or if they can stop it.
How much oil was it leaking a day ?
Estimates from the preliminaries suggested 1000 barrels perday,(they were joking
) to 5000 barrels perday and newly revised to 40,000 barrels perday and still mounting...
All in all, BP is trying to wrangle itself out of responsibilty and it has its minnions, the eco-warrior inc. to do its dirty jobs by not speaking the truth.
MSMs' on this subject varied so much with the alternate news sites, on reading between the lines, most all those ecowarriors have been silenced by the mighty dollars. Yes, They have been bought as everything has its prices and the amounts the BP is willing to fork out to cover this disaster are staggering. How about 10B Sterling Pounds and a "stay out of jail ticket?"
Only after the magnitude of the disaster became evident did Obama order Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to declare the oil disaster a “national security issue.” Although the Coast Guard and FEMA are part of her department, Napolitano’s actual reasoning for invoking national security, according to Madsen, was merely to block media coverage of the immensity of the disaster that is unfolding for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean and their coastlines.
Estimates from the preliminaries suggested 1000 barrels perday,(they were joking
) to 5000 barrels perday and newly revised to 40,000 barrels perday and still mounting...All in all, BP is trying to wrangle itself out of responsibilty and it has its minnions, the eco-warrior inc. to do its dirty jobs by not speaking the truth.
MSMs' on this subject varied so much with the alternate news sites, on reading between the lines, most all those ecowarriors have been silenced by the mighty dollars. Yes, They have been bought as everything has its prices and the amounts the BP is willing to fork out to cover this disaster are staggering. How about 10B Sterling Pounds and a "stay out of jail ticket?"
Only after the magnitude of the disaster became evident did Obama order Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to declare the oil disaster a “national security issue.” Although the Coast Guard and FEMA are part of her department, Napolitano’s actual reasoning for invoking national security, according to Madsen, was merely to block media coverage of the immensity of the disaster that is unfolding for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean and their coastlines.
Call for action: Protesters let their feelings be known during a rally against BP. Government estimates of the oil flow from the gushing well have been adjusted wildly over the last weeks, leaving many to doubt that anyone has a solid handle on the scope of the total damage caused by the BP disaster.
BP Oil Leak Aftermath: Slow-Motion Tragedy Unfolds for Marine Life
The wildlife haven Grand Isle is at the heart of the environmental catastrophe engulfing Louisiana
by Suzanne Goldenberg
Out on the water, it starts as a slight rainbow shimmer, then turns to wide orange streamers of oil whipping through the waves. Later, on the beach, we witness a vast, Olympic-sized swimming pool of dark chocolatey syrup left behind at low tide, and thick dark patches of crude bubbling on the sand.
The smell of the oil on the beach is so strong it burns your nostrils, and leaves you feeling dizzy and headachey even after a few minutes away from it.
According to marine biologist Rick Steiner, my companion on a boat ride through the slick, this is the most volatile and toxic form of crude oil in the waters and lapping on to the beaches of Grand Isle, the area at the heart of the slowly unfolding environmental apocalypse that has engulfed Louisiana, and is now moving eastwards, threatening Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle.
Fifty-three days after BP's ruptured well began spewing crude oil from 5,000ft below the sea, the wholesale slaughter of dolphins, pelicans, hermit crab and other marine life is only now becoming readily visible to humans.
So too is the futility of the Obama administration's response effort, with protective boom left to float uselessly at sea or – in the case of the Queen Bess pelican sanctuary which we visit – trapping the oil in vulnerable nesting grounds.
Steiner, 57, a marine biologist from the University of Alaska and a veteran of America's last oil spill disaster, the Exxon Valdez, says he is in the Gulf of Mexico "to bear witness", and for days he has been taking to the beaches and the waters in a Greenpeace boat gathering evidence.
The first casualties on Steiner's tour appear minutes after our boat leaves the marina and moves through Barataria Pass, prime feeding ground for bottlenose dolphins. Several appear, swimming, eating, even mating in waters criss-crossed by wide burnt-orange streamers of oil. All are at risk of absorbing toxins, from the original spill and from more than 1.2m gallons of chemicals dumped into the Gulf to try to break up the slick, says Steiner.
"They get it in their eyes. They get it in the fish they eat and it is also possible when they come to the surface and open their blowhole to breathe that they are inhaling some of it," he says.
The Greenpeace crew turn up the throttle and the boat pulls up to the orange and yellow protective boom around Queen Bess island, which was intended as a haven for the brown pelican. These birds, until recently, were on the federal government's list of endangered species and were doing OK – but now that recovery appears to have been abruptly reversed.
A dark tideline of oil encircles the island, and has crept into the marsh grasses, where the pelican nest. Many, if not most, of the adult birds had patches of oil on their chest feathers. Nearly all are doomed, says Steiner, if not now, then at some point in the future. "The risks in here to birds are not just acute mortality right here right now," he says. "There is mortality we won't see for a month or two months, or even a year."
He points out a pelican standing so still it looks like it's been made out of a slab of chocolate, another frantically flapping its spread wings to try to shake off the oil, and then another manically pecking at the spots on its chest. "He could be a candidate for cleaning, and he may survive," Steiner says. "He obviously won't if he's not cleaned."
Rescue teams have plucked hundreds of birds from the muck. But stripping oil from the feathers of stricken birds is a slow and delicate operation, and there is no assurance of the birds' survival. About a third of the rescued birds have died so far.
As we pull up to Queen Bess island, two crew boats are at work shoring up the two lines of defence for the island: an outer ring of orange and yellow protective boom intended to push the oil back out to sea, as well as an inner ring of white absorbent material that is supposed to suck up any of the crude that gets through.
Since oil began lapping at the Louisiana coast, the government has set down 2.25m ft of containment boom and 2.55m ft of absorbent material. But local sports fishermen on Grand Isle complain response crews bungled the protection zone for Queen Bess because they only put a portion of the island behind the orange and yellow barrier boom. That turned the boom into traps which pushed even greater quantities of oil onshore. Steiner agrees: "I would say 70% or 80% of the booms are doing absolutely nothing at all."
The efforts on the beaches seem equally futile. By day workers in white protective suits march along the sands of the state park on the eastern end of Grand Isle, trying to suck up the oil. But as the tide goes out there is only more oil to be found, and dozens of dead hermit crab that have struggled to flee to shore.
Steiner says he has seen it all before, after the Exxon Valdez went aground in 1989, and then in other oil spills he has monitored around the world from Lebanon to Pakistan. There is, he says, a drearily familiar pattern. "Industry always habitually understate the size of a spill and impact as well as habitually overstate the effectiveness of the response."
In the case of the Exxon Valdez, he says, the environmental impacts persisted for months or years after the tanker went aground. That catastrophe, which saw 11m gallons of crude dumped into the pristine waters of Alaska, occurred within the space of six hours.
This spill is much worse. BP's well on the ocean floor has been spewing greater volumes of crude oil into the water for 53 days. Even by the administration's most optimistic forecasts, it will keep gushing until August, and the clean-up could last well into the autumn.
"This is just the start. It is going to keep coming in even if they shut the damn thing off today," says Steiner.
.
Tick,tock,tick,tock...
Estimated spillage so far...
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152,000,000 gallons so far...
Estimated spillage so far...
<iframe width="300" height="70" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://www.wkrg.com/gulf_oil_spill/iframe_ticker/"></iframe><br><a href="http://www.wkrg.com/gulf_oil_spill/" title="Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill" style="font-size:10px;">WKRG.com News</a>
152,000,000 gallons so far...
The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe.
Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy.
In a recent discussion, Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, predicted that the present oil spill flooding the Gulf Coast shores of the United States “could go on for years and years … many years.”
According to a report from Washington investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, “the Obama White House and British Petroleum are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP’s liability for damage caused by what can be called a ‘mega-disaster'
Silence from Eco groups?...
Follow the money
Without doubt at this point we are in the midst of what could be the greatest ecological catastrophe in history. The oil platform explosion took place almost within the current loop where the Gulf Stream originates. This has huge ecological and climatological consequences.
A cursory look at a map of the Gulf Stream shows that the oil is not just going to cover the beaches in the Gulf, it will spread to the Atlantic coasts up through North Carolina then on to the North Sea and Iceland. And beyond the damage to the beaches, sea life and water supplies, the Gulf stream has a very distinct chemistry, composition (marine organisms), density, temperature. What happens if the oil and the dispersants and all the toxic compounds they create actually change the nature of the Gulf Stream? No one can rule out potential changes including changes in the path of the Gulf Stream, and even small changes could have huge impacts. Europe, including England, is not an icy wasteland due to the warming from the Gulf Stream.
Yet there is a deafening silence from the very environmental organizations which ought to be at the barricades demanding that BP, the US Government and others act decisively.
That deafening silence of leading green or ecology organizations such as Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and others may well be tied to a money trail that leads right back to the oil industry, notably to BP. Leading environmental organizations have gotten significant financial payoffs in recent years from BP in order that the oil company could remake itself with an “environment-friendly face,” as in “beyond petroleum” the company’s new branding.
A team of U.S. government and independent scientists said that the most likely flow rate of oil from the Deepwater Horizon well is between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day, or 1.47 million to 2.52 million gallons a day.
The estimate is the largest of several that have been made since the spill began in April.
BP PLC and the U.S. Coast Guard originally said about 5,000 barrels of oil were spilling every day. A barrel holds 42 gallons.
By May 27, the federal government had increased the estimate to 12,000 to 25,000 barrels a day.
By June 10, the government estimated the spill to be gushing 25,000 to 30,000 barrels a day.
In a news release from the spill's Unified Command Center , the scientists cite two reasons why they are more confident in the new figure:
1. More and different kinds of data is available now: The improved estimates are informed by newly available, detailed pressure measurements from within the Top Hat taken over the past 24 hours. In addition, scientists could draw on more than a week of data about the amount of oil being collected through the top hat.
2. A single flow is easier to estimate: Prior to the riser cut, oil was flowing both from the end of the riser and from several different holes in the riser kink. This made estimates - particularly based on two dimensional video alone - more difficult.
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Some oil spill events on Saturday, June 19, 2010
(AP) – 1 hour ago
A summary of events on Saturday, June 19, Day 60 of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with the April 20 explosion and fire on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC, which is in charge of cleanup and containment. The blast killed 11 workers. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well.
BP CEO
BP chief executive Tony Hayward was the target of fresh outrage among many in the Gulf Coast who learned that the executive took a day off Saturday to see his 52-foot yacht "Bob" compete in a glitzy race off England's shore. BP spokespeople rushed to defend Hayward, who has drawn withering criticism as the public face of BP PLC's halting efforts to stop the spill. Company spokesman Robert Wine said the break is the first for Hayward since the Deepwater Horizon rig BP was leasing exploded. It was not clear whether Hayward actually took part in Saturday's J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race or attended as a spectator. Meanwhile, some critics were also upset that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden played a round of golf Saturday near Washington, something they've done on other weekends since the spill.
FLORIDA BEACHES
Tar balls washed up on Destin, Fort Walton and Panama City Beach, the farthest east the oil has been reported in the Sunshine State. From Pensacola in the west to Panama City Beach in the east — spanning some 100 miles of coast famous for sugar white sand beaches — the aftermath of the spill continued its march. On Saturday evening, hundreds of clumps of tar mixed with sand littered the high tide line at Fort Walton Beach as people strolled, played in the sand and swam. Unfavorable onshore winds were pushing the oil closer, and more tar balls were expected to wash up in the next few days. A large plume of oil was about 30 miles offshore, officials said, and it would land on the Panama City-area beaches in the coming weeks unless the winds change for good.
OFFSHORE CONTAINMENT
About 50 miles off the coast, a newly expanded containment system is capturing or incinerating more than 1 million gallons of oil daily, the first time it has approached its peak capacity, according to the Coast Guard. BP hopes that by late June it will be able to keep nearly 90 percent of the flow from the broken pipe from hitting the ocean.
BP CLAIMS
The head of a new office created to process claims from the BP oil spill said a plan to handle the remaining damage claims will be in place in 30 to 45 days. Kenneth Feinberg was chosen by President Barack Obama and BP to oversee the Independent Claims Facility. Feinberg said he also plans to have a program going forward that would guarantee that people making claims in the future would receive them within 30 to 60 days of submitting it.
METHANE
Vast amounts of natural gas contained in crude escaping from the blown well could pose a serious threat to marine life by creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives. The danger presented by the methane has been largely overlooked, with early efforts to monitor the oil spill focusing on the more toxic components of oil. But scientists are increasingly worried about the gas that can suffocate sea creatures in high concentrations. At least 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas — and possibly almost twice that amount — have leaked since April 20. That's based on estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey's "flow team" that 2,900 cubic feet of natural gas are escaping for every barrel of oil.
ENVIRONMENT
Oil industry groups said the spill doesn't necessarily indicate problems with how environmental laws are applied in granting drilling permits. Anadarko Petroleum, which has a part interest in the well that blew up, submitted comments to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which is completing a 30-day review of the issue. So did the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas trade group. In the wake of the explosion, reports have suggested that government regulators skirted requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act. Anadarko said it did not believe implementation of environmental policies "in any way played a role in this event."
FOREIGN HELP
At least 22 nations — including Britain, where BP is based — have offered oil-collecting skimmers, boom, technical experts and more to help the U.S. cope with its worst-ever environmental disaster. But their generosity comes with a price tag. The State Department confirmed that nearly every offer of equipment or expertise from a foreign government since the rig explosion would require the U.S. to reimburse that country.
BP EMPLOYEES
Far from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico and their bosses' frantic attempts at damage control, BP workers for the oil giant are dodging awkward glances and tactfully avoiding any mention that they work for what may be America's public enemy No. 1. In interviews with The Associated Press, more than a dozen BP employees from Alaska to North Carolina say they still love the company that has paid and treated them well for years. Now, they are just careful whom they share it with. In BP's case, the public scorn is so great that a corporate security official felt compelled to send employees a memo warning them to keep a low profile and stay aware of their surroundings.
SPILL CAM
It's nearly impossible to avoid the live video of the coal-gray oil gushing from BP's well a mile below the Gulf of Mexico's surface. According to an Associated Press-GfK Poll this week, 88 percent of the public has viewed it. The video is a daily reminder that two months after the oil rig explosion that killed 11 and caused the massive leak and resulting environmental and economic damage, BP still hasn't plugged the well.
Some oil spill events on Saturday, June 19, 2010
(AP) – 1 hour ago
A summary of events on Saturday, June 19, Day 60 of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that began with the April 20 explosion and fire on the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC, which is in charge of cleanup and containment. The blast killed 11 workers. Since then, oil has been pouring into the Gulf from a blown-out undersea well.
BP CEO
BP chief executive Tony Hayward was the target of fresh outrage among many in the Gulf Coast who learned that the executive took a day off Saturday to see his 52-foot yacht "Bob" compete in a glitzy race off England's shore. BP spokespeople rushed to defend Hayward, who has drawn withering criticism as the public face of BP PLC's halting efforts to stop the spill. Company spokesman Robert Wine said the break is the first for Hayward since the Deepwater Horizon rig BP was leasing exploded. It was not clear whether Hayward actually took part in Saturday's J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race or attended as a spectator. Meanwhile, some critics were also upset that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden played a round of golf Saturday near Washington, something they've done on other weekends since the spill.
FLORIDA BEACHES
Tar balls washed up on Destin, Fort Walton and Panama City Beach, the farthest east the oil has been reported in the Sunshine State. From Pensacola in the west to Panama City Beach in the east — spanning some 100 miles of coast famous for sugar white sand beaches — the aftermath of the spill continued its march. On Saturday evening, hundreds of clumps of tar mixed with sand littered the high tide line at Fort Walton Beach as people strolled, played in the sand and swam. Unfavorable onshore winds were pushing the oil closer, and more tar balls were expected to wash up in the next few days. A large plume of oil was about 30 miles offshore, officials said, and it would land on the Panama City-area beaches in the coming weeks unless the winds change for good.
OFFSHORE CONTAINMENT
About 50 miles off the coast, a newly expanded containment system is capturing or incinerating more than 1 million gallons of oil daily, the first time it has approached its peak capacity, according to the Coast Guard. BP hopes that by late June it will be able to keep nearly 90 percent of the flow from the broken pipe from hitting the ocean.
BP CLAIMS
The head of a new office created to process claims from the BP oil spill said a plan to handle the remaining damage claims will be in place in 30 to 45 days. Kenneth Feinberg was chosen by President Barack Obama and BP to oversee the Independent Claims Facility. Feinberg said he also plans to have a program going forward that would guarantee that people making claims in the future would receive them within 30 to 60 days of submitting it.
METHANE
Vast amounts of natural gas contained in crude escaping from the blown well could pose a serious threat to marine life by creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives. The danger presented by the methane has been largely overlooked, with early efforts to monitor the oil spill focusing on the more toxic components of oil. But scientists are increasingly worried about the gas that can suffocate sea creatures in high concentrations. At least 4.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas — and possibly almost twice that amount — have leaked since April 20. That's based on estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey's "flow team" that 2,900 cubic feet of natural gas are escaping for every barrel of oil.
ENVIRONMENT
Oil industry groups said the spill doesn't necessarily indicate problems with how environmental laws are applied in granting drilling permits. Anadarko Petroleum, which has a part interest in the well that blew up, submitted comments to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, which is completing a 30-day review of the issue. So did the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas trade group. In the wake of the explosion, reports have suggested that government regulators skirted requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act. Anadarko said it did not believe implementation of environmental policies "in any way played a role in this event."
FOREIGN HELP
At least 22 nations — including Britain, where BP is based — have offered oil-collecting skimmers, boom, technical experts and more to help the U.S. cope with its worst-ever environmental disaster. But their generosity comes with a price tag. The State Department confirmed that nearly every offer of equipment or expertise from a foreign government since the rig explosion would require the U.S. to reimburse that country.
BP EMPLOYEES
Far from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico and their bosses' frantic attempts at damage control, BP workers for the oil giant are dodging awkward glances and tactfully avoiding any mention that they work for what may be America's public enemy No. 1. In interviews with The Associated Press, more than a dozen BP employees from Alaska to North Carolina say they still love the company that has paid and treated them well for years. Now, they are just careful whom they share it with. In BP's case, the public scorn is so great that a corporate security official felt compelled to send employees a memo warning them to keep a low profile and stay aware of their surroundings.
SPILL CAM
It's nearly impossible to avoid the live video of the coal-gray oil gushing from BP's well a mile below the Gulf of Mexico's surface. According to an Associated Press-GfK Poll this week, 88 percent of the public has viewed it. The video is a daily reminder that two months after the oil rig explosion that killed 11 and caused the massive leak and resulting environmental and economic damage, BP still hasn't plugged the well.
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